Write about someone keeping track of time with tally marks on a wall — until one day they discover that all the marks are gone.

Posted in General on Jul 8, 2021

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 138 stories

“Into The Leviathan’s Maw” by Laura Clark

The bioluminescent ribs arch high above, spanning the sky. Leathery skin behind them stretches taut and cuts off whatever view there might be. Twisting around the bones are vines of darkness, occasionally bridging the gaps between to link the only sources of light in my world. In the early days, I had tried to use the vines to climb high enough to survey my environment, but they were as brittle as hope and as sharp as disappointment. I always fell, my hands crisscrossed with thin lines of blood. Now, I simply watch ...

61 comments 61

Read story

“Always and Forever” by Writer Maniac

“Maggie?” “Magdalena?” “I’m coming, give me a second,” I yell at Mom, pulling up the world map to its original position to hide the marks behind it. I guess I have to cut it off after lunch. You always knew that Mom meant business when she called me Magdalena. Rarely anyone called me that anymore, being the mouthful that it is. Except for him, who always ...

21 comments 21

Read story

“250 Days” by Iona Cottle

Esme sat and watched the sun pass across her room, just as she did every day, waiting for the right time. That wasn’t to say that she watched it all day, every day, although she did spend a lot of her time – probably more than most – just watching the box of light trek across her painted wall. It wasn’t as though there was all that much else to do. During the morning, when the light was be...

18 comments 18 SHORTLIST ⭐️

Read story

“Graphite Lines” by ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕒 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕨 🏳️‍🌈 (Inactive For The Summer)

The sound of the graphite point scraping against cement. Drawing a line. Placing a hand on the cold wall. Pulling it away and inspecting the black dust. Is it ash or graphite? Her home had burned. She had been put here. She wore clothes of rags. Her hair was uneven and dirty. Her eyes had once been full of life and beauty. Now, they were empty. Dev...

36 comments 36

Read story

“How long has it been?” by Moon Lion

I yawned lazily, realizing that it must be nighttime out there. Well, maybe, or maybe not, I mentally debated for a few moments before reverting to laziness. I'm tired which means it's sleep time. I had been inside the bunker for so long, in this windowless, not too hot, not too cold place, that my body had forgotten all about the rhythms of the outside world. Picking up the metal na...

19 comments 19

Read story

“Tallys” by 🎄◦•●◉✿ 𝓑𝓵𝔁𝔁𝓲𝓲 ✿◉●•◦🎄

“The first tally mark ever! How exciting.” Baby Brianna exclaimed. “Mom, I’ve picked up a hobby of adding a tally mark every day! My goal is to keep this going for as long as I can. Then, I’m going to count my tally marks.” Hope soared in her chest at the thought of tallying marks for her whole life. She’d be the first ever person, too! “That’s nice, hon. Although, you can’t possibly sit right by that paper and wait for the day to pass by, can you? Perhaps draw ...

13 comments 13

Read story

“Suicide pact” by Coco Longstaff

Every Friday, my parents cook the most delicious turkey that has ever existed on Earth. They use natural ingredients that I have never heard of before. Every time they make it, I ask them for the recipe. They just never tell me. Instead, they looks at me with a smile mixed with sadness and joy, and tell me that one day, when their time has come to pass, they will tell me. Tell me the Secret Ingredient. This is the routine that happens every week, every Friday.Little do they know that their time will be my time too.

19 comments 19

Read story

“The Thaw” by Alexandra Tostrud

The landscape has been frozen for at least two hundred thirty-seven days, an immaculate display of snow-covered evergreens and rivers stuck at a standstill. The smoke from his chimney hovers over the quaint little cabin, never to rise any higher (though he long hoped that it would, someday.) The only change he was granted was of the sun and moon, cycling through the sky at a regular pace. He assumed as much, at least: th...

15 comments 15 SHORTLIST ⭐️

Read story

“White Room” by Thora Porter

272. Days. That was how long I have been trapped in this room. I don’t even know what this room is. All I know is that I have been stuck here for a very long time. The room is white. White walls. White tiles on the floor. A white bed with bleached white sheets. White light. So much white that it’s sickening to even look around. The only things that are not white are the marks I have written on the wall. I don’t even know how I wrote those since I have no pen, but somehow the mark...

21 comments 21

Read story

“The Mark on the wall” by Aman Fatima

The sun rose again, from where Nathan couldn’t tell. How many days had passed since he lost everything, since he was the only one remaining he couldn’t tell. What he could tell was the number of days that had passed since he was put in the room with no way out except a small window. The tally marks on the wall signified the rise of the sun he could see from the window. The tally marks showed that a year had passed, 1 yea...

5 comments 5

Read story

“Counter of Smiles” by Jasey Lovegood ✨

Counter of Smiles“And… There we go! That makes one hundred and fifty-seven smiles!” I step back from my wall, that’s a big whiteboard, and admire my large number of tally marks. The tally marks are to count how many times I’ve made people smile. So far, I’ve been counting for seven months, nine weeks, and twenty-two days. I always make sure I record the latest number in my book, just in case. My best friend, Eclipse, always asks me if it’s hard to keep track, and I tell her it’s not because I have...

39 comments 39

Read story

“all gone” by 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚝💙

I reached for the small rock that I had been using to mark the red brick wall. A week has already passed. 7 short vertical lines left tiny indents in the worn down brick. The wall had been there practically forever. It didn’t serve an actual purpose but it did give us a place to sit. I came here everyday after it happened to mark the days she was gone. It wasn’t fair but there was nothing I could do about it. ...

2 comments 2

Read story

“The Heart of War” by A.G. Scott

1 // Andrei.There was nothing anyone could do to stop it: darkness was about to fall on the quiet village of Elinya.And so, as the last swells of light sank behind the Rhodope Mountains, the people made their preparations. Torches flickered to life along the main roads and at the gates. Clean smoke swirled up from chimneys and floated away with the westward wind. Quiet prayers went on behind closed doors, some to Christ, some to Allah. Every ordinary family had their ordinary routine, a...

10 comments 10

Read story

“Farewell the Crickets Sang” by Philip Alexander

Five years ago the despondent, grim-faced prisoner was found guilty of treason, contesting a corrupt law that only favoured the rich, the greedy and the malicious. In his mind, the concept of power should have been divided equally amongst the town, to the joyous people, and dispensed like a wheel of cheese, for all the mouths in the village to feast upon uniformly, but it wasn’t meant to be. “You call yourself a king!? The people are starving, and you sit on your pompous throne fattened like a rotten boar! You’re a ...

8 comments 8

Read story

“Hell?” by Annette Lovewind

I add another tally to the wall. There were so many I lost count or was too lazy to count them anymore. I’m trapped in this room and I have no idea why. It’s like this medieval jail cell but with a few upgrades. There is no dirt floor, instead a cold stone one, I have a window but it’s so small I can just see the few sun rays that peek through when the sun is setting or rising I have no idea but I know I’m not underground. I just add a tally for when it happens. Stone walls, A wooden door that is locked, nobody comes in and it has never o...

7 comments 7

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone scrambling to finish a goal in the last few hours of the year.

Holiday – 129 stories

Write a story that takes place across ten days.

General – 101 stories

Write a story that takes place across ten seconds.

General – 272 stories

Write a story in the form of a top-ten list.

General – 118 stories

Contest #74

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Countdown

$50

Prize money

758

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 01, 2021 EST

Won by Scout Tahoe 🏆

Title: Kindergarten

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Tired of MS Word?

Join the revolution and write your book in a tool designed for authors. 🙌

Includes FREE typesetting to print-ready PDF & EPUB files, track changes and collaborative editing.

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Write about someone keeping track of time with tally marks on a wall — until one day they discover that all the marks are gone.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 138 stories

“Into The Leviathan’s Maw” by Laura Clark

“Always and Forever” by Writer Maniac

“250 Days” by Iona Cottle

“Graphite Lines” by ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕒 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕨 🏳️‍🌈 (Inactive For The Summer)

“How long has it been?” by Moon Lion

“Tallys” by 🎄◦•●◉✿ 𝓑𝓵𝔁𝔁𝓲𝓲 ✿◉●•◦🎄

“Suicide pact” by Coco Longstaff

“The Thaw” by Alexandra Tostrud

“White Room” by Thora Porter

“The Mark on the wall” by Aman Fatima

“Counter of Smiles” by Jasey Lovegood ✨

“all gone” by 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚝💙

“The Heart of War” by A.G. Scott

“Farewell the Crickets Sang” by Philip Alexander

“Hell?” by Annette Lovewind

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone scrambling to finish a goal in the last few hours of the year.

Write a story that takes place across ten days.

Write a story that takes place across ten seconds.

Write a story in the form of a top-ten list.

Contest #74

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

758

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Tired of MS Word?

Explore more writing prompt ideas: